Brainstorm ideas, using the free association technique. Do not worry about making sense of all of your ideas at this early stage. Simply consider alternative points of view. Whether you are trying to solve a problem or to diagram information, a mind map sheet can be useful since it allows you to instantly write down ideas as they occur to you. Thus, if you are trying to think of chores around the house, you can write down "cooking, cleaning and ironing clothes" as soon as these ideas occur to you.
Reduce complex ideas to single words or simple phrases. A single word is preferable to 20 well-phrased words when describing a specific idea in a mind map. The reason for this is that mind maps can easily become cluttered if they are filled with extraneous information. Avoid fancy terminology or syntax when constructing a mind map. Usually, such a map will only be used by yourself or a small group of colleagues, so you can abbreviate information and explain such references in more detail in attached documents.
Utilize visual devices to convey the substance of your ideas. According to the authors of "Step by Step to College and Career Success," a mind map sheet makes use of word and visual patterns to "provide you with highly charged clues to jog your memory." The magic of a mind map is that it can communicate a large amount of information at a glance. For example, if your mind map contains bubbled terms, you can increase or decrease the size of the bubbles according to the importance of each term. Similarly, text contained in a mind map sheet can be colored, printed in bold or presented in an unusual font. There are many ways to visualize data in a mind map, including supplementing text with photos or drawings.
Review your map, with the intent to sequence information. If you are writing your mind map in pencil, you may wish to revise the map by erasing unnecessary information; if writing it in pen, you can cross out such information. You may also wish to reposition information that is relevant to another heading, by using the mind mappping tool of the subheading.
Express relationships between ideas by using checkpoints, connecting lines or arrows. During note taking, a student can easily emphasize or deemphasize ideas contained within his mind map by annotating pertinent information with checkpoints. Connecting lines can also be used to establish connections between information. Lastly, arrows are useful to express the dynamism of these ideas.